25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 22, 2024

What it means to be first in the Kingdom of God

Gospel: Mark 9:30–37

The Second Prediction of the Passion.

They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.

The Greatest in the Kingdom.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”

But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.

Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Music Meditations

• “The Summons” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “The Servant Song” (sung by Maranatha! Vocal Band) [YouTube]
• “Baba Yetu” (music by Christopher Tin; words by Chris Kiagiri) [YouTube]
  Christopher Tin is a Stanford alum. The words of the song are a Swahili adaptation of the Lord’s Prayer.

Opening Prayer

Jesus, keep me innocent and trusting of you and others… Help me to view everyone as beloved, as you did. Give me wisdom to discern what matters and who matters in my life. I lift up my prayers to you for all those who feel lost and abandoned, all those in pain and sorrow… [think of and name those specific people for whom you especially pray]. Lord, keep my eyes open for opportunities to serve.

Companions for the Journey

From Living Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Commentary on Mark 9:30-37

Jesus was now spending more time with his disciples alone and teaching them. He was teaching them things that the crowds were not yet ready to hear. As we will see, his disciples were not too ready either.

Today we have the second of three predictions of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection which he communicates to his disciples. On each occasion, the pattern is exactly the same:

1. a prediction of what is going to happen to Jesus
2. total lack of comprehension of the meaning of what Jesus is saying on the part of the disciples
3. a teaching of Jesus arising out of their lack of understanding.

The prediction is stated simply:

• Jesus will be “handed over into the hands of others”. This is the standard term used many times. John the Baptist is handed over; Jesus is handed over; the disciples later on will be handed over; and, in the Eucharist, the Body of Jesus is handed over for our sakes (“This is my Body, which will be handed over [tradetur] for you”).
• he will be put to death
• three days later he will rise again.

They arrive in Capernaum and, in the house, Jesus asks them a question. (Once again we have a reference to the “house” with overtones of the church, the place where God’s people gather, as they do here to listen to the Word of God.) Jesus asks his disciples what seems an innocuous question: “What were you arguing about on the road?”

Here we have another important word of Mark’s: “road” (Greek, hodos, ’odos). In the context of the Gospel it has theological overtones. Jesus is the Way or the Road and Christians are those who walk on this Way or Road. The disciples arguing then has implications about Christians arguing among themselves as they follow Christ ‘on the road’.

Jesus’ question is met with an embarrassed silence because they had been arguing among themselves which of them was the greatest. The minute the question was asked they knew they were in the wrong. Why were they arguing about this? I once heard it suggested that, as Jesus had now for the second time announced his coming death, they were beginning to accept the possibility of it really happening. They began to wonder what would happen to them as a group without Jesus. Who would be in charge? Which of them had the best qualifications? Hence their argument. If that was the case, then Jesus’ question was even more embarrassing. They could hardly say, “Well, we were wondering which one of us would take over when you are no longer with us.”

Jesus, of course, knew exactly what was going on in their minds so he gave them some guidelines if they wanted to be truly his followers. “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.” This is quite a hard saying and most of us find it difficult to put fully into practice. It is, of course, totally in opposition to what goes on in the secular world where “success” means being on top, being in charge, being in control, calling the shots.

Yet, who are really the greatest people in our society? Is it not those, especially those who are especially talented intellectually or in other ways, who use their talents totally for the well-being of others to the point of even sacrificing their lives?

Apart from the obvious example of Jesus himself, we have many of the great saints. In our own times we have marvelous people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Jean Vanier, Mother Teresa. It is a long list but they all have one thing in common: they put themselves totally at the service of their brothers and sisters. Success, promotion, status, material wealth, executive power meant nothing to these people. They served and in serving was their power, a power which inspires in a way that no mere politician or business tycoon or dictator could ever do.

To serve is not to be submissive or weak; it is not putting oneself on a lower level than those being served. It is simply to be totally committed to the good of others and to find one’s own well-being in being so committed.

Jesus then takes a little child, as a symbol of all those who are vulnerable, weak and exploitable. Children are used by Jesus as symbols of the anawim, the lowly and weak in our society. They are the ones who are most of all to be served and protected and nurtured. In so doing one is recognizing the presence of Jesus and the presence of God in them.

As Christians, we have much to be proud of in our record of service to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are weak and vulnerable. But we also have to confess that within our Church and in our dealings with the “world” we have had our fair share of hungering for power, status and position. And we have so often argued bitterly with each other “on the Road”, about just such things.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• What are the up-sides and the down-sides of ambition?
• What is the role of ambition in our spiritual life?
• Is spirituality a competition for some as well?
  How does it manifest itself?
  Do you know anyone who is a spiritual braggart?
  How do we avoid it?
• In our culture, how much do we dwell on what makes us different, separate, better than those around us?
• What does it mean to cultivate “downward mobility”?
• Thomas Merton said; “No person enters heaven alone.” What does that mean in terms of our own spiritual development?
  How does one “wish to be last”?
• Walter Burkhardt, S.J. wrote a homily on the occasion of the jubilee celebrations (50 years) of several priests. In it, he defined a true priest as a man of joy, a man for others, and a man of prayer.
  Did Jesus fit this description?
  Do you know any priest who fits this description?
  Do you know any non-priest who does so?
  Do you fit this description?
  Which quality is the hardest for you?
• To be disciple means more that spreading Christ’s message; it means living his life. Where am I on the road to discipleship?
• Do I live to serve the gospel?
• What does Jesus’ willingness to endure whatever came his way do to help us through some miserable times in our own lives?
• Am I willing to suffer humiliation to become a servant of Jesus?
  Have I ever made someone feel “lesser” because of the way I related to him or her?
  Was I aware of it at time?
  How can I avoid the habit of viewing people on a scale and consciously or unconsciously competing with them?
  What is the cost of being “a servant of all”, which can also be translated “deacon”?
  How do we view deacons in our church?
  How has the term “servant of all” been used against women historically?
• How does our call to social justice find resonance in this gospel?
• From “First Impressions” 2021:
  What “Christian Servant” role am I currently involved in?
• What is the role of openness to God’s plan (another word: obedience) in being a servant of the Lord?
  How hard is this?
• Walter Burghardt says faithful servanthood is a movement from a person to a person through a person. It is making it easier for another man or woman to live a more human, a more Christian existence. How, exactly, does that play out in our lives?
• Why did Jesus choose to focus on children in this passage?
  What was the position of children in the ancient middle east?
  What is the role of children in our culture?
  Does the difference affect how we hear this passage?
  What does the tragedy in our own country of children ripped from their parents at the border tell us about how well, as a people, we listen to Jesus?
• How does the notion of children as powerless extend to all those in this world who lack power and are at the mercy of others (anawim)?
  Name some people who have worked and given up much to serve those without power.
  What is my personal obligation to the powerless, here and now?
• What, as a Church, do we owe our children?
  What do we do as a Church to welcome children?
  What have we done as a Church to marginalize children?
  To hurt some of them?
• What is my “inner child”? How do I honor that?
  Do I really accept and nurture the child within myself?
• Do I ever try to “tame” the gospel so it is not uncomfortable or threatening?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Read the following passage from Sunday’s Letter of James (an early Christian author). How does it mirror the sentiments of the gospel? Does any of it apply to you? Speak to Jesus about your desires to live as He would want you to.

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Examen:

Spend some time this week, just before bed, going over the events of the day and making a little “Examination of Consciousness”. First, become present to God in your life right this moment. How aware were you of God in your life today? Take time to give thanks for all the good things that happened, however small. Like a child, revel in small things like sunshine or cool weather, for a text from someone you care about, for simply being alive. Did you receive any kindness from anyone today? Did you extend kindness to anyone today? Is there anything you did which might reflect your understanding of yourself as a “servant of the Lord”? Reflect on even the smallest details of your day, including any slights, hurts or failures that might have occurred. What did you learn about yourself from those experiences? Be sure to thank God for them, as well. Throughout the week, in each prayer experience, be sure to reflect on gratitude as a spirit building mindset, and reflect also on one habit of the heart you might wish to cultivate this week in order to be the person Jesus calls you to be.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Adapted from Songs of Life: Psalm Meditations from the Catholic Community at Stanford by Anne Marchand Greenfield, 2004:

In New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton said:

I am thinking of the particular unreality that gets into the hearts of saints and eats their sanctity away before it is mature. There is something of this worm in the hearts of all religious people. As son as they have done something which they know is good in the eyes of God, they tend to take its reality to themselves and make it their own. They tend to destroy their virtues by claiming them for themselves and clothing their own private illusion of themselves with values that belong to God.

The saints are what they are not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else.

I write my own letter to God in my journal, thanking God for my own particular spiritual gifts, but being very careful not to think those gifts make me better than others. Talk to God about the ways in which you want to avoid comparing yourself to someone else, good or bad.

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem by Ed Ingebretzen, S.J. serve as an antidote to spiritual competitiveness?

“Lonely Christ”

Lonely Christ
I pray to you.
You are a puzzle to me
as those I love
always are.

My soul is at odds
with the words.
What mad reach of mine
touches any thread of you?
Or what of mine, arms or eyes,
ever shares with people
where they may lie—
as they always do—
in a hard place!

What of mine shall make good
their taking of a breath,
their rising, caring, feeding
their sleeping in fear—
what shall make good
their slight faith,
their enormous promises
made in iron
for a child, man, a woman—

what of mine shall be with the people
as they caress a special grief
fondled again and again
In bludgeoned love?

What do I bring
with which to clutch
the merest hint of your shadow?

Closing Prayer

Lord, you know my heart; you know its generosity and its venality. Help me to notice the thinking patterns in myself what wish to deny reality. Help me to face life squarely and honestly, as you did. Help me also to avoid the temptation to vie with others for your attention and the attention of the world. Help me to be an island of healing and calm when there is squabbling and backbiting among those I love or those with whom I work. Make me an instrument of peace, not competitiveness.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 8, 2024

The need for healing; the need to be healers

Mark 7: 31–37

Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and [the] mute speak.”

Music Meditations

• Healer of My Soul—John Michael Talbot
• Open my Eyes, Lord
• Shepherd Me, O God

Opening Prayer

Deep inside myself, Lord, I can be both deaf and dumb. Help me to “be opened” the your words and to the needs of others, Help me to speak out on behalf of those who cannot do so for themselves. I also need to thank you for the body you have given to me, whether it is perfect or very imperfect, whether it is old or young, whether it is healthy or sick. Help me to be grateful for the time I have had in this body, and help me to navigate the challenges this body may afford me at some point in my life, now or later.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from Lovely in Eyes Not His: Homilies for an Imaging of Christ, by Walter Burghardt, S.J. (part of a homily on Mark 7:31-37 for the opening of the school year):

This God we celebrate today operates somewhat as Jesus did in the gospel. All of us are slightly or dreadfully deaf; speak with some impediment; we don’t listen as we ought to man, woman, or God; we stammer and stutter to communicate, with man or woman, or God. We need the spirit of Jesus to touch our ears and our tongues, our eyes and minds, our hearts and hands, to command our flesh and spirit: ”Be opened!”. Open not only to what we like, love, agree with; not only what looks good, sounds good, smells good, tastes good, feels good. Open as well to the new and the strange, the painful and the perilous. Open therefore, to ideas that challenge or affright, teachers who rouse or drowse, people who attract or repel. Open to ways of living alien to us, life situations that millions on this planet are challenged by this very moment – from the shivering homeless on the warm grates of the city where they can find them, from those living on El Camino in cars and campers because their families have no place to live, to those refugees fleeing violence, repression and grinding poverty in places like Afghanistan and right here in our own hemisphere. Open to a God who no longer exists in your space to solve your problems for you; rather a God who shed that glory that was His to wear your flesh, share your sweat, bleed your blood, a God who never forsakes you however faithless you be, pursues you however far you flee, promises you on the earth a dignity and a delight beyond your wildest dreams: nothing less than to be God’s daughter, God’s son.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Ephphatha! Be opened!

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

The symptoms of physical deafness are obvious. What are some of the symptoms of being spiritually deaf? In the gospels, illness is usually a sign of alienation of some sort, and when Jesus heals someone, He brings them back into community. What sorts of illnesses in our present day alienate people from the rest of us? How does our culture deal with illness? Have people sometimes been blamed for their illnesses? (Think of AIDS, lung cancer, or heart problems which people attribute to lifestyle choices) Have people been sort of ostracized for mental illness which has behavioral implications that are hard for others to deal with? When you have been ill, have you ever felt that you inhabited a place where no one else was, either because you were contagious, (flu) in terrible discomfort which made it hard to interact with others, or because the seriousness of the illness itself catapulted you into a realm of dire choices? Have you ever, in your life, in your workplace, in your personal relationships, felt as if you were rendered mute? Why was that? How did you deal (or how are you currently dealing) with the enforced silencing? As a church, (and WE are church, folks) whom do we not hear? Do I feel my church hears me? As a church, whose need for healing do we ignore? Where do we as a church bring others into reconciliation with us? From Orchard Church: How does Jesus meet the deaf man where he is? How dies Jesus meet you where you are? How can you be a friend who brings people to Jesus? Do you trust that Jesus does all things well? How are you showing that trust right now? Where are we called to play Christ the Healer? Where do I need healing? Am I deaf to what God is speaking to me? In what parts of my life am I deaf to the needs of someone else? Do we sometimes expect God to be a miracle worker, to solve all of our problems? What exactly, is God's role in our lives? Jesus told people not to tell others about his curing of the deaf man—probably so people would not follow him for the wrong reasons. To what extent is our culture drawn to those who seem larger than life? What is the danger in this?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Psalm 38 (excerpts) But I am like the deaf who cannot hear, like the mute, I cannot open my mouth. I am like the one who hears nothing, in whose mouth is no defense. I count on you O, Lord, it is you who will answer. I pray: ”Do not let them mock me, those who would triumph if my food should slip.” For I am at the point of falling, and my pain is always before me. My God, do not stay far off! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my God and Savior

Serious illness, and especially a terminal illness can separate the sick person from those around her. Perhaps friends and family members do not want to be infected. Others do not want to think about the suffering of another for too long; it reminds them of their own mortality. This psalm captures very well the sense of isolation that comes from illness; isolation that can lead to depression and hopelessness. The psalmist asserts that healing, either in body or spirit, only comes from God. Has there been a time in your life when you needed God’s healing? Did you ask for it?

Pray to God for the confidence to trust in the Spirit’s healing powers.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

I imagine that I am deaf and also cannot be understood because my speech is impaired. How isolating it is to be with others and not be able to hear what they are saying or to respond. People all around me are sharing their lives with each other, and I am on the fringes, ignored or forgotten. I feel so alone. Others might wonder if I did something to offend God and therefore have brought this catastrophe on myself. There are few jobs I can do, because of the communication problem, so I must rely on the good will of my family and friends to take care of me. It is humiliating. But people do try, and they are so kind.

My friends bring me to see this itinerant preacher and “wonder worker”, asking for him to do something for me. This man takes me aside and does some strange things, but all his actions are in private, so I am not on display for others to see and comment out of scorn or genuine pity. First he puts his finger into my ears, then spits on that same finger and puts it on my tongue. I am at first repulsed, but I see his concern and his kindness. I feel that soft touch, those healing fingers. He cares. When he groans and looks at heaven, he then commands my ears to be opened. And they are! My speech impairment is gone and I am restored to my community of loved ones! Before I had life, but was not really living. Now I live fully in the joy of my return to the community. I think this man’s touch was more than magic: it was a healing and restoring of relationships I need to thrive. Through him I have learned that God is all about compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation and unselfish love. No one will remember my name, but we will all remember his because through him “the mighty God has done great things for me”, and for the world. A lesson for the ages.

I ask myself if I have even been deaf to the calls of Jesus to me, who wants to heal, and save. Have I ever remained dumb instead of witnessing to the Good News? I remind myself that I am called to be Christ on earth, acting in His name in my own time and space. I ask myself if there is anyone in my life who is isolated and needs a helping hand, or simple some sign of connection. I pray for a those who have no one to pray for them.

I resolve to look at each day (daily examen) and ask myself how I became Christ for another today…..

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

There are several lessons for us in this story. First and foremost, the deaf man himself did not ask to be cured. He was brought to Jesus by some caring friends. Is there anyone in my life right now who could do with some intervention on his or her behalf? Do I really see or hear the pain in another’s life ? How can I be more attentive to what people are NOT saying? Can I make even a small effort to help someone out? Notice also that Jesus drew the man away from onlookers, so that he and the man could have some privacy for what was a very graphic and intimate experience. When I see someone hurting, do I take him or her aside and try to help while reserving that person’s dignity and privacy? Am I willing, then, to keep it all a secret, or do I slyly reveal what I have done to others??

Poetic Reflection:

What sort of healing does Father Ingebretsen speak of in the following poem?. Have you ever felt this way?

"Like a Stone"

I wait like a stone and the waters have no answer; though I must be carried over mountains through deserts and fear though I must drop through ceilings still the freedom of the Lord will find me waiting on the movement of His spirit. And those waters stir silently: they bring to breath long wishes and desires that have lain stagnant by this pool. Move me, Lord, as the moon does the sea; I ebb, I flow, I sink and fill in response only to you. I wait like a stone: touch me and even this stone shall have voice, shall sing.

—Ed Ingebretsen, S.J., from Psalms of the Still Country

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord, you have given me this beautiful body to glorify your creative powers. Help me to use it wisely and to hold it sacred. Teach me to continue to give thanks when I am sick or in pain, remembering that that is part of the gift as well. Please be present and walk with those suffering illness at this time.

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 1, 2024

It is not one’s rituals and outward holiness that count, it is one’s inner heart and deeds that count

Mark 7: 1–8, 14–15, 21–23

Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders.

And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles [and beds].)

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”

He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Music Meditations

• Psalm 15—Psalm Project
• Open My Eyes Lord
• Kyrie Eleison—Chris Tomlin
• Those who do Justice Will Live in the Presence of God
• Create in Me a Clean Heart, Oh God—Maranatha Singers

Opening Prayer

Dear Lord, help me to love all as myself.

Help me to rest in humility and to find peace in withdrawal from conflict and competition.

Help me to turn aside from controversy and put away heavy loads of judgement and censorship and criticism and the whole burden of opinions I have no obligation to carry.

(Adapted from Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, pp 44-46 excerpted.)

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

When people approached Jesus with sincere questions he gave them a response. He even responded to some Pharisees who seemed to be sincere in their inquiries. For example, when they asked him about divorce (10:2-12). To the rich man, who asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to share in everlasting life?” Jesus responded and engaged the man in a searching reflection (10:17-25).

But today Jesus doesn’t seem as patient or tolerant with the Pharisees and scribes questioning him about his disciples’ lack of ritual cleansing at meals. These religious authorities don’t seem as sincere as others who were searchers and came to Jesus for guidance. The Pharisees were on a mission, and is not just to speculate about religious customs with Jesus.

Mark tells us these critics came from Jerusalem up to Galilee. Jesus was drawing crowds wherever he went in the rural areas among the poor and unlettered; people who didn’t know or practice the niceties the elders of the religious establishment in Jerusalem had decreed were required observances for devout Jews. The stories at this point in Mark show Jesus’ popularity was even spreading to the Gentile population – another threat to the establishment. As if to underline this, the next story in his narrative is about the Canaanite woman, a Gentile who came beseeching Jesus to heal her daughter of an unclean spirit – he does.

The religious authorities in Jerusalem would have liked more order and conformity to the tradition of the elders. Mark seems to be writing for a wider audience, non-Jews, because he takes some time to explain what those religious rules were. Jesus accuses the Pharisees and scribes of being more concerned with ceremonial regulation, “the tradition of the elders,” than with the Commandments of God. Unlike other, more sincere seekers, these legalists were trying to paint Jesus as a breaker of the religious laws. They are on the attack, as they will continue to be throughout this gospel.

Jesus, on the other hand, bypasses their question about handwashing and goes to the heart of the issue: those who are challenging him are holding onto “human tradition,” but should have been spending more time and energy teaching the deeper requirements of love, compassion and justice which God requires. He quotes Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Today’s selection skips over verses 9-13. It’s a shame, because they refer to the Corban doctrine. That teaching of some rabbis undermined children’s requirements to care for their parents, while the Commandments require children to honor their parents (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16). It is not certain how often the Corban exemption was actually practiced, but Jesus shows the cruelty that can be tolerated in the very tradition the Pharisees were defending. Is it possible that some of our religious practices are performed out of habit because “we have always done it this way,” but no longer address the values for which they were originally designed to protect or instill in us?

The washing of hands and eating utensils is a current concern for people of our time and especially in our culture. During flu season we carry tiny bottles of Purex in our pockets or purses to kill germs on our hands when we are about to eat outside our homes. Some parishes have an antibacterial liquid on the side credence table in the sanctuary so the priest and Eucharistic ministers can cleanse their hands before distributing the Eucharistic bread and cup. Obviously, Jesus wasn’t talking about proper sanitary procedures for eating and drinking, but with the preoccupation with ritual that overrides the spirit of God’s law.

He gathers the crowd again to spell it out for them. It’s not what we eat or drink that defiles us, but what comes out of a person. Food, we are reminded these days, can have deleterious effects on the body. It can injure the heart – too much salt, fat or sugar in the diet. But obviously Jesus isn’t talking about some physical foods’ and their bad effects on our physical heart. He’s naming the effects that come out of our spiritual hearts; evil behavior is produced by evil hearts. If we follow all the rules according to the letter of the law we might feel quite satisfied with ourselves and are tempted to think we had gotten ourselves right with God – after all, we did everything properly.

But, while decorum and dignified ritual are part of our religious practice, God is more concerned with a deeper cleansing and purifying. If our hearts can be purified, the prayer and behavior that flow from them will be exactly what God has in mind for us. If we act out of the intentions of good hearts we will know how to behave, even if we don’t know the exact rule for this or that situation.

Today’s gospel passage is a reminder that some good traditions are helpful guides for our behavior. We were taught them as children and are guided by them still: going to church on Sunday; grace before meals; family prayers; a rosary in our pocket; daily Scripture reading; a lighted candle before an icon at home; bread blessings on feast days of patronal saints, etc. Some many good, prayerful customs, done over and over seep into our hearts and are life-giving. The fruits of a good heart are good deeds done instinctively each day.

Jesus gives a pretty good list of behavior that flows from hearts that are “defiled.” The “Anchor Bible Commentary” on Mark notes that examples of lists of vices were common in Greek literature. Concerning this passage it says, “The nouns which follow – twelve in all – contain six plural examples, indicating evil actions, and six singular, describing generic vices” (page 317). In other words, this is a thorough list and it would have been a useful guide to the early community for whom Mark was writing.

Jesus puts priority on human relationships and has shown them to be sacred. That’s where we turn to law and tradition, to lists of vices and virtues, to guide us how to live well together in community. He wasn’t teaching us to disregard human laws and traditions. Instead, his focus is less on the external rules and more on internal realities.

The gospel challenges us to look to our heart where our true identity lies. Some people practice exquisite etiquette and proper speech, but in their hearts a good number of Jesus’ list of vices have taken root. It’s not just that they deceive others, but they have deceived themselves as well. We need to develop our consciences according to the spirit of Jesus; to find ways to name the evils that reside in our heart under the guise of self-interest, family values, patriotism, and, according to today’s gospel, religious practices.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• The disciples were no very sophisticated religiously, and they probably did not observe too carefully all of the 613 precepts that the Pharisees did. Did that make them “bad” Jews?
  Did the observation of those 613 precepts make the Pharisees better than others?
• Do we sometimes judge people on their outward piety, or lack of it?
• How do people honor God with their lips, but have hearts afar from God (Isaiah)?
• Where, as a church, have our priorities for kindness and charity to others sometimes been misplaced by emphasis on dress, posture, correctness?
• In our culture, what kinds of people do we admire?
• What defines a “good person”?
  Were the Pharisees good people?
• What does it mean to “walk humbly with the Lord”? (Micah 6)
• What does it mean to do justice?
  How important is justice in the priorities of our civil leaders? Our spiritual Leaders? Our cultural heroes? Our own lives?
• How is the heart a symbol for our soul?
  Can you say you love God and harbor dislike or contempt for someone in your heart?
• What “good things” can come out of us?
  What “bad things” can?
• From “First Impressions 2003”:
  Have some of my religious practices become rote, more the force of habit than anything else?
• From Invitation to Mark, by Rev Paul Achtemeier:
  Do we run into any danger of allowing religious rules to get in the way of doing God’s will?
• Am I so worried about being “correct” in my prayers that they sometimes lack honesty?
• Am I so concerned about the correctness of a religious experience that I sometimes miss the experience itself?
• What religious practices of other people bother me?
• Do I tend to judge others on their piety, or lack thereof?
• What is spiritual arrogance?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Pharisees have not been well regarded by Christianity as a whole, but the fact is, they were very religious people. God really was the center of their lives. These were, in the main, good people. The problem occurred because they thought they knew God better than anyone else and proceeded to judge others and exclude others according to their own religious standards. Spiritual arrogance was a failing of theirs, and is a problem for many of us, whether we realize it or not. Have I been confidently smug about my relationship with God because I appear to be a good person, and observe all the correct rituals? I reflect on a time when I have been judgmental about another person who made a decision or engaged in a practice that I thought was misguided or just plain wrong. Have I ever made a judgement about someone only to realize later that I did not get the story straight? Did I share my judgement with others and injure this person’s reputation? Have I been the “rules police” for others in my local church community? Have I ever honored God with my lips, while my heart was far away?

Adapted from: Songs of Life: Psalm Meditations from the Catholic Community at Stanford, by Anne Marchand Greenfield

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Consideration:

In New Seeds of Contemplation Thomas Merton said:

And now I am thinking of the disease which is spiritual pride. I am thinking of the particular unreality that gets into the hearts of saints and eats their sanctity away before it is mature. There is something of this worm in the hearts of all religious [people]. As soon as they have done something which they know to be good in the eyes of God, they tend to take its reality unto themselves and make it their own. They tend to destroy their virtues by claiming them for themselves and clothing their own private illusion of themselves with values that belong to God. Who can escape the desire to breathe a different atmosphere from the rest of [humanity]? (p. 49) The saints are what they are not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else (p.57).

I consider the gifts I have been given, and reflect on how they have shaped my life and my relationships for the better. I speak to God about those particular gifts, being careful to recognize God as the author and giver of those same gifts. In this exercise of thanksgiving, I am particularly careful to avoid smugness and to avoid comparing myself to others. I also consider the qualities I possess which are sometimes less than admirable. How have those shaped me as well? I thank God for the lessons I have learned from the mistakes I have made and the lessons I have learned by confronting selfish tendencies I have worked to overcome. I remind myself that I am a work in progress and thank God for the patience and understanding shown me.

Adapted from: Songs of Life: Psalm Meditations from the Catholic Community at Stanford, by Anne Marchand Greenfield

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship

Pray this Litany every day this week:

“Litany of Humility”

Author: Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val y Zulueta

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, O Jesus. That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be praised and I go unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Poetic Reflection:

What does the poem by Father Ed Ingebretzen, S.J. tell us about our attempts to love as Jesus loves?

“Lonely Christ”

Lonely Christ
I pray to you.
You are a puzzle to me
as those I love
always are.

My soul is at odds
with the words.
What mad reach of mine
touches any thread of you?
Or what of mine, arms or eyes,
ever shares with people
where they may lie—
as they always do—
in a hard place!

What of mine shall make good
their taking of a breath,
their rising, caring, feeding
their sleeping in fear—
what shall make good
their slight faith,
their enormous promises
made in iron
for a child, man, a woman—

what of mine shall be with the people
as they caress a special grief
fondled again and again
In bludgeoned love?

What do I bring
with which to clutch
the merest hint of your shadow?

Closing Prayer

Keep us, O God, from all pettiness.
Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
Let us be done with fault-finding and leave off all self-seeking.
May we put away all pretense and meet each other face-to-face,
Without self pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment, always generous.
Let us take time for all things, and make us grow calm, serene, and gentle.
Teach us to put into action our better impulses, to be straight-forward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize that it is the little things of life that create differences,
That in the big things of life we are one.
And, Lord, God, let us not forget to be Kind.

Prayer of Mary, Queen of Scots

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 18, 2024

Eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood is the way to remain in Jesus and Him in us

John 6:51–58

I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them,

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Notes:

“Eats”—the verb used in verses 54-58 is not the classical Greek verb used of human eating, but that of animal eating: “munch,” “gnaw.” This may be part of John’s emphasis on the reality of the flesh and blood of Jesus (cf. Jn 6:55), but the same verb eventually became the ordinary verb in Greek meaning “eat.”

Music Meditations

• Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing
• Halleluya! We Sing Your Praises—OCP Session Choir
• Gift of Finest Wheat
• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring—Josh Groban and others

Opening Prayer

Adapted from Pope Benedict XVI:

Help us to rediscover you, O Lord. You are God with a human face. When we seek you, find you, follow you, Jesus, we indeed see God.

You are our everlasting gift.

Companions for the Journey

This is taken from “First Impressions” 2009, a preaching service of the Southern Dominican Province.

John’s gospel does not have the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The three Synoptics do, so John, the last gospel written, presumes we know that story. What John has in chapter 6 to is the “Bread of Life Discourse.” In the discourse the theme of Wisdom (verses 35 – 50) is blended with the eucharistic theme – as seen in today’s reading. The language in today’s section of the Discourse shifts, with the occurrence of words like: “eat,” “food,” “drink,” “flesh,” “blood.” The language has become literal, even crude. Jesus’ realism in this passage stirs controversy among his listeners. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

We have heard these expressions so frequently in our liturgical, biblical and faith language and have become accustomed to them. But we miss the shock value they had on their original hearers. Today’s gospel captures some of the impact of Jesus’ words on his contemporaries. The crowds take Jesus’ words literally and later we behold that many of his own disciples turn away from him because of what he said. That there should be arguments over the meaning of Jesus’s words should not surprise us: we still have disagreements among Christian denominations over how to interpret what he meant.

The “Bread of Life Discourse” was prompted by Jesus’ feeding the crowd with real bread. That got their attention; he satisfied their physical hunger. But that was only a starting point for further conversation about another kind of brea he would give us – himself. This is the bread that would feed our deepest hungers. To convey the reality of that kind of feeding, Jesus’ language becomes more concrete. We will hear it again at this Eucharist: “Take... and eat, this is my body. Take... and drink, this is my blood.”

Is there anything Jesus is holding back from us? How much more could he give than his “flesh and blood” -- his whole self? Can we hear in Jesus’s words and self-giving how close God wants to get to us? God’s very life mingles with our lives so that our lives can become one with God’s. Jesus makes that promise to us: eating his flesh and drinking his blood gives us eternal life – not only life on and on forever, as much as deep life – full life -- right now. No waiting, eternal life begins now!

Let’s hope that the eating and drinking we do at the Eucharist today will jar our memories so that we remember and act on Jesus’ teachings. Let’s also hope that this meal keeps us connected to the One who gave himself so that we can begin to share now in God’s gift of eternal life. The food and drink, the body and blood, we eat and drink should draw us believers closer together as a community. Jesus’ reference to his blood refers to the life he will pour out for us on the cross. We who partake in the meal are challenged to look beyond ourselves, as he did, to see the needs of the world around us for which he gave his life. We eat and drink because we believe. Others should see that faith enfleshed in our words and actions. We cannot live Jesus’ life without eating from the table he has set for us -- his body and blood. So, let us, the hungry, approach the table Wisdom has set for us at this Eucharist.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Are theological questions ever a distraction so that people can evade the implications of what they are hearing?
• How can Jesus give us his flesh to eat?
• Are we slightly repulsed by the image of eating the flesh of Jesus? (as the Jews were)?
• How do I experience the Eucharist?
  How central ls it in my life?
  How has this concept divided Christian denominations?
• Do I believe that Jesus becomes part of me and I become part of Him through the gift of the Eucharist?
• How would you describe your spiritual life... Satisfying? Malnourished? Starving?
• What do you do and where do you go to feed your spirit?
• In what ways do we try to satisfy our thirst for understanding?? (theology, philosophy, prayer, openness of spirit being with those in need, etc.)
• What does Holy Wisdom offer us?
• To what sort of people does wisdom extend an invitation?
• To what sort of people does Jesus extend an invitation to partake in His very self?
  What do we have to do to earn it?
• This discourse comes after Jesus has fed everyone with real bread. What does that tell us about what our priority should be in evangelizing to others?
• What is the role of real hunger in human experience?
• What is the role of spiritual hunger in human experience?
• Do I get in this gospel how God wants to get to me, to be with me completely?
  Why or why not?
• When does eternal life with God begin?
  How do we share it?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

This section from John emphasizes the personal relationship of the communicant with Jesus over any community dimension. Read the other, earlier, Gospel accounts (Matt 26:14-16; Mark 14: 10-11; Luke 22: 14-20) and compare their understanding of the Eucharist with that of John. Then compare this passage to the instructions given to the Corinthians by St. Paul (1 Corinthians 11). Which of these is closest to your understanding of the Eucharist?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

There was once a king who engaged a street artist to make a painting of the Last Supper. He wanted a picture of Jesus and his friends at their farewell meal for his banqueting room. The artist had Jesus and his friends around the supper table, but he also included all kinds of people around the table, showing people from many races. There were people who were sick, lame and crippled; men and women; young and old; beggars and misfits and some not very nice people. When the King saw the painting he went into a rage, and shouted at the artist, ‘Of what is this a painting?’ The artist said ‘Your Highness, this is a painting of God who delights in all people:; all saints and all sorts are welcomed to the Kingdom and the earthly banquet...and that is my understanding of the Last Supper, Holy Communion and Eucharist.’

Personal Meditation:

Paul Crowley, S.J., taught the two CC@S classes through the religious studies department several years ago. At the time of this homily, he was battling a very serious disease, (which ultimately caused his death shortly after this homily was delivered) and sent this section to his friends and family. I thought people might like to have it:

We do not need to live to see all our desires—personal and otherwise—fully realized. We need only ask: What more can I do with what remains of this precious life that I have been given? Even if I am sixteen, sixty, eighty—or even if I am dying? Help me—help us—look beyond the earthly bread that can satisfy only a little, and toward the Bread that alone can satisfy beyond imagining—the Bread that leaves us asking not for more from God, in a spirit of anxiety, but rather what more can we give to God, in a spirit of gratitude.

The Psalmist poses all this as a simple question, and one that we might turn around in our hearts: “What return can I possibly make to the Lord for all of his goodness to me?” (Ps 116).

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Theology is important; it helps us understand the mystery that is God, the mystery of God’s gift to us through Jesus. It helps us take seriously Jesus gift of Himself in the Eucharist. Nonetheless, it is too easy to get caught up in the theology of this Sunday’s gospel, rich as it is, and forget that the Real Presence is an encounter of the heart, and ignore the response that is expected of us in return. This homily by Father Brian Gleeson, CP, is a call to respond to the gift that is the real Jesus in the Eucharist:

HOLY COMMUNION, A PACKAGE DEAL: 20TH SUNDAY B

A homily by Brain Gleeson, CP, from “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

The message of Jesus to us today is a promise. He promises to be for us just what he is. He’s our Bread of Life, and he promises to be our nourishment, sustenance and support, all along our journey of life. Unlike some people, perhaps ourselves, Jesus keeps his promises. So today let us move in our thoughts to where he keeps his promise, the Upper Room in Jerusalem. As Jesus is about to take leave of his disciples, and submit to the suffering and death which awaits him, he shows his intention to continue to be present to his friends and followers, but in a new and different way. The new form of his presence will be the bread and wine of a community meal celebrated in his memory. Just as human beings must eat and drink if they are to stay alive, so must the followers of Jesus eat and drink if they are to live by his teachings and example, and remain united with their Lord and one another. In becoming food and drink for their journey to God Jesus adapts himself to the need which all human beings have to both eat and drink in order to stay alive and well. This is to say that the new form of his presence will be one based on nourishment and refreshment, and will involve both eating and drinking. It’s important to remember, however, that communion with Jesus is not simply a private conversation with him. No, it’s a package deal. When we receive and meet the risen Christ in Holy Communion, we are challenged to open our hearts to everyone else who belongs to Jesus, to everyone else who shares the same food and drink in the same meal, and to everyone else who forms one body with him.

We are challenged to love others as he loves them. For this reason some words that have been put on the lips of Jesus by an anonymous writer seem very much to the point. Let’s hear him saying those words to you and me now:

I tried to catch your attention this morning.     Remember when you came back to your seat and closed your eyes and  put your head down and talked and talked to me?     I wanted you to listen.     I wanted to tell you to open your eyes and look at my broken body  all around you.     I tried to catch your attention that time the toddler stood on the  seat and spoke to you, but you gave me a dirty look and humiliated me  and didn't hear me.     I was the unmarried mother at the end of your seat, the old man in  front of you, the family of seven children across the aisle from you -  and I almost had the impression you disapproved of me.     I was the woman in the green coat whose husband left her this week  and whose heart was being eaten out right through Mass, and a friendly  smile or word would have been a little support to me.     I am your wife who cooked the lunch and coped with the children and  all the burdens of the house while you read the Sunday newspaper and  then went out.     I am your husband and your children and you stamped and huffed and  gave us your cold silent treatment for three and a half long hours after  Mass. You blackened and deadened the whole atmosphere of our home.     I am your mother and father and you have ignored and mocked and  criticized and tortured as only a teenager knows how.     I am your teenage son whom you've lost belief in and your nagging is  driving me crazy.     I am your next-door neighbor whom you spend so much time gossiping  about and criticizing.     I am your fellow parishioner whom you meet every day in the street  and you ignore me, busy about your own concerns.     And it sickens me, all the coldness, all the squabbling and division  and those endless running battles that scourge me and crown me with  thorns. And then you pierce my side at Holy Communion with your empty  words of love.     If you love me, feed my sheep, my starving sheep, and start in your  own home.     Please don't keep me at bay any longer.     Don't talk to me. Listen.     I don't want you to go on loving my spirit and ignoring my body. I  don't want you to open your mouth to receive my body and close your eyes  and ears to shut it out.     When will you understand that you cannot have Holy Communion with me  if you don't have communion with your brothers and sisters in your own  family and parish?     Stop thinking of me as some kind of spiritual being in the skies. I am one with these people and you cannot have me without them.     On the last day, I won't ask you how many times you went to Mass - that is not your holiness. I will ask how your own family and neighbors fared, how your spouse and children grew in love and faith.     How did they live their Mass?     Please. Open your eyes and ears. Stop, look and listen, and make time for me by making time for them.

Poetic Reflection:

This is a beautiful reflection on the power of the Eucharist and the power of the Eucharistic community:

"Gather the People"

What return can we make
for all the Lord has done in our lives?
We bring bread, wine, our clay dishes
and our clay feet
to this altar
and we pray that we may here
make a beginning—
that somehow in our days
we can begin to see the promises
the Lord has made us.

The promises do not always
glow with obvious light, or
overwhelm us by their obvious truth.
No matter what anyone says,
it is difficult to understand an invisible God
and belief is not always
the easy way out.

So we gather the people
and we tell the story again
and we break the bread
and in the memory of the one
who saves us,
we eat and drink
and we pray and we believe.

We gather, we pray, we eat.
These things are for human beings.
God has no need of them.
Yet he himself gathered the people,
prayed, broke bread
and gave it to his friends.

And so the invisible God became
visible
and lives with us.

—Ed Ingebretzen, S.J., from Psalms of the Still Country

Closing Prayer

Lord, we live two lives: flesh and spirit. Both are deeply intertwined as is the gift of your body and blood. Help us, through faith in your love and your legacy, to balance the earthly and the eternal as we journey toward you. Give us nourishment for our daily journey and keep us ever close to you, the Bread of Life.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 11, 2024

Jesus was the unexpected messenger of good news; He WAS the good news!

John 6:41–51

The Jews murmured about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

“I am the bread of life.

“Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Music Meditations

• “Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord” (Tony Eiras)
• “El Pan de la Vida” (by Eleazar Cortés) [YouTube}
• Panis Angelicus (by Franck; sung by Luciano Pavarotti and Sting) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Lord, how easy it is to put our hopes in things of this world. You promise us something far more satisfying, far more lasting… Help us to treat transitory things as just that, and help us to hope in that which cannot perish: your goodness and your love.

Companions for the Journey

Homily from Fr. Brendan McGuire 2012:

In today’s gospel, we continue to read from this long passage in John’s Gospel called “The Discourse of the Bread of Life.”
It is one of the largest discourses in John’s Gospel. And we are reading it for several weeks during the summer.

The Evangelist John has multiple layers in which he always writes: There is a meaning and then double meaning;
where there is often a meaning underneath; there is irony and double irony that goes on. Quite frankly, it is a fun gospel to
read because one almost has to decrypt what he is saying.

In today’s gospel reading for example, we have to take note of the triple denial that the would-be disciples or the hearers of Jesus are going through. It is important to break it open just a bit because it is the rich meaning for this gospel today.

The first denial is that the hearers of Jesus are disbelieving or denying that God would speak to them;
they had the Torah;
they had the Prophets
but they did not believe that God would speak to them; that they were not that special; number one.

The second denial is they did not believe that God had anything new to say to them. There was no freshness.
In other words, what was said in the Torah and what was said by the Prophets was it.
That was the message. There was nothing new to be added.
That is the second denial.

The third denial, which is emphasized in today’s gospel, is that if God was to talk to us;
and if he was going to give us something new, it most certainly would not be in the person of Jesus Christ.
And why? Because we know him.
He is too ordinary.
He is from Nazareth.
He is the Son of the carpenter.
We know his mother and his father!
How could it be from him?
How could he “Come down from heaven?”

This is where it starts to really be fun to watch them; fun in the sense that we can see ourselves in this.
If we are really honest, we too have that triple denial. I mean we often do not believe that God would speak to us.
Why would he speak to me? I am just a regular parishioner.
I am married.
I’ve got kids.
Or I am a priest or a child or just ordinary.
God isn’t going to speak to me!

And if God does speak to me, he doesn’t have anything new to say to me; why would God say something new to me?
Don’t we have the scriptures?

We do not even believe that.
As Catholics, we believe that yes the scripture is a preeminent place but we believe God is always talking to us
to every single one of us.
And here is the most important part:
Who is he speaking to us through?
Is Jesus going to speak directly to us?
The answer is yes.
And how does he come to us? He comes to us in the most ordinary voices of those around us.
Just like Jesus came in the most ordinary voice at that time.

Who is that ordinary voice when God is speaking to us? It might be just a stranger who says something kind to us;
or maybe something challenging to us that we have not heard. Or maybe it is from a familiar voice; maybe our spouse, who we often discount as not having anything relevant to say in our lives, right?
Or maybe it is a child and we might think; “What would a child ever know?”
Or maybe it is a parent or a relative or a close friend.
You see God is constantly breaking open and speaking to us through those around us
and he has something fresh to say to us every single day.
If we have ears to listen, we will hear.
If we have faith to believe, we will see how he is operating.

One of the problems we have, and I do not think it is our generation only, but particularly our generation is that
we believe that when God created us, it is a past-tense event. In other words, God created us and he’s done.
You see, that is not Catholic theology at all.
Catholic theology is that yes, God created us in his image
but he is creating us still now. And that creation process is where we come in
because we become co-creators with God primarily of ourselves and then of the world. But we have to cooperate with that.

In the Eastern Church, they have a term for this; it is called the divinization process or a theosis, which means that we become more like God every day that we live. Some cooperate in the opposite way and become less like God.
But we have to cooperate with God’s work in our life to become more like God and
then we become more Christ-like in our daily life.

This is what the letter to the Ephesians was talking about in today’s second reading written in Paul’s name. They are saying “Be very clear; here is how we know we are part of this divinization process and here is how we know we are not.”
It says, if we are part of malice, deceit, divisiveness, we are not from the Holy Spirit.
We are not participating in God’s way in the world. Now think of what we are experiencing in our world today
and all the division; and all the words that divide us; the malice, and deceit that is happening. We have to say
there is a lot of nonparticipation in the divinization process. But then the letter says “If you want to know if you are part of God’s process of purification, of goodness then you will be kind and compassionate and good towards others, forgiving, forgiving towards others as God is forgiving towards you. Be imitators of God.” Wow! This shouldn’t be a surprise but it is for us.
Our role as Christians is allowing God to continue the creation process within us with the Bread of Life we partake in;
that we become more like God as each day goes on. Now I do not know about you but one of the hardest parts about getting older is we think “What’s the point, I’ve done the best I can. I am finishing here.”
No.
The way God works is that we are like an unfinished art work until the last day. If you have ever watched artists at work,
sometimes the final touches to a piece of artwork are the most brilliant of all because they are the ones that add the color and the depth; or that last little bit of sculpture that removes this hard edge. And suddenly, you go “It pops! Oh my gosh that is beautiful!”

That is what you and I are.
We are unfinished art work and until the last stroke; and until the last sort of chip off the block; and until the last smoothing out,
the Lord is not done with us. And we want to co-create with him the beauty and the art that he is creating until our very last breath. Sometimes the last strokes are the most important ones.

So today, as we come to the table to receive the Bread of Life once more, know what we are doing. We are participating in this divinization process that we are becoming more like Christ and our role is to cooperate with it;
it is to be kind;
it is to be gentle;
it is to be compassionate;
and to be forgiving and loving towards all.
That is our process.
That is the exciting process, which stays true until the last breath of our life.
We are still being created by God, a work of art.
Today, we receive the Bread of Life because he is the Bread of Life and he continues his work of art within us.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Amen, Amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Does it matter to me what the source of a message about life is?
  If I like or admire a person, am I more likely to hear that person’s message?
• When we think we know everything there is to know about someone and his/her origins, we can be closed to something he/she might say. Is it harder to hear an important and maybe difficult message from someone who was “one of us” and now is seen in a different light?
  Has my sense of awe ever been blunted by familiarity?
• Has prejudice ever gotten in the way of my true listening and responding?
  Have I ever resisted hearing a message of truth because of who delivered it?
• Those that followed Jesus did not really know what he was all about, and were very confused about what was happening in their lives; how easy is it to criticize the crowds that followed Jesus for doing the same thing that I have sometimes done?
  Have I ever felt lost and confused and asked for a sign from God about what to do next?
• How difficult is it to hear things I do not want to hear, or things that are hard for me to understand?
  What growth am I missing out on if I simply dismiss such messages?
• Has there been a time when someone’s advice or prophetic words have come back to haunt me?
• Do I ever sort of require that Jesus prove who He is by doing something magical for me or another?
• Do we really believe that God understands the real human hungers and needs which we have and does not consider them trivial?
  Is it hard to believe that God has not left us lost and hungering, but is there to nourish us when we need it?
  Do we trust that God knows our deepest needs and will not let us down?
• What part of life feels strained and testing these days?
  How is God feeding your hunger and fatigue these days?
• How is Jesus the Bread of Life for us? Is it surprising that people did not, and probably still do not understand the meaning of this phrase?
  What does it mean to eat the Bread of Life and live forever?
• Do I ever thank Jesus for the gift of Himself in our Eucharist?
• Have I ever failed to realize that it is God, not others or my own efforts, that has been the source of bountiful things in my life?
• What do I think it means that I am drawn to Jesus though the Father?
  Do I see God the Father as somehow not connected to Jesus?
• Do I complain to God a lot, expecting God to mend my life?
• What are my hungers? Where have I gone to satisfy them and where have those choices led me?
• Have I ever been the “Bread of Life” for anyone else?
• Have I ever connected the Sunday Eucharist to the events in this passage from John?
  How does it sustain me throughout the week?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

“I am the Bread of Life”.

In the gospel of John we hear the words of a Jewish mystic called Jesus. Sometimes, because of his mystical and poetic imagery, it is difficult to discover the real meaning of what He is saying. The crowds also had a difficult time as well, in trying to understand what He was saying. Because we have heard this passage over and over, we tend to think of this as ordinary language, and we never try to unpack what it actually might mean for us. But what, exactly, does it mean to you when Jesus calls himself the Bread of Life? What exactly, is Bread of Life a metaphor for? What things in your life have assumed the importance of “Bread of Life”? Where does the bread of the Eucharist fit in?

Did you notice that Jesus started with the words “I AM”? this is the first of several sayings in the gospel that use that phrase. Now think back to the term YHWH—I Am Who Am, as it refers to God in the Jewish scriptures. In this gospel of John we are made aware of the close identity between YHWH and Jesus himself. Are you taken aback by ths claim of Jesus? Are you more comfortable dwelling on the human Jesus or the divine Jesus? How hard is it to do both? When we are tempted to make Jesus something other than who He is (a provider of necessities or favors, a teacher who tells us what we want to hear, for example—as opposed to a true and sacrificial gift for the life of the world) we might be missing His message. Can I follow Jesus for who He is rather than who I want Him to be?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Read the following excerpts from Psalm 34, then write your own psalm, addressing it to Jesus (I will bless you Lord at all times). Add any other phrases or words that come from your heart:

2 I will bless the LORD at all times; praise of him is always in my mouth.
3 In the LORD my soul shall make its boast; the humble shall hear and be glad.
4 Glorify the LORD with me; together let us praise his name.
5 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; from all my terrors he set me free.
6 Look towards him and be radiant; let your faces not be abashed.
7 This lowly one called; the LORD heard, and rescued him from all his distress.
8 The angel of the LORD is encamped around those who fear him, to rescue them.
9 Taste and see that the LORD is good. Blessed the man who seeks refuge in him.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Reread this passage from Father Brendan’s homily and examine your life to see where, in at least one small way this week, you can become more Christ-like:

So today, as we come to the table to receive the Bread of Life once more, know what we are doing. We are participating in this divinization process that we are becoming more like Christ and our role is to cooperate with it;
it is to be kind;
it is to be gentle;
it is to be compassionate;
and to be forgiving and loving towards all.
That is our process.
That is the exciting process, which stays true until the last breath of our life.
We are still being created by God, a work of art.
Today, we receive the Bread of Life because he is the Bread of Life and he continues his work of art within us.

Poetic Reflection:

In this poem, Mary Oliver captures the connection between Jesus as the Bread of Life, and the Jesus we experience in the Eucharist:

“The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist”

Something has happened
To the bread
And the wine.

They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forward

To receive the gift
From the priest’s hand,
Then the chalice.

They are something else now
From what they were
Before this began.

I want
To see Jesus,
Maybe in the clouds

Or on the shore,
Just walking,
Beautiful man

And clearly
Someone else
Besides.

On the hard days
I ask myself
If I ever will.

Also there are times
My body whispers to me
That I have.

—Mary Oliver, from Thirst

Closing Prayer

When I am drawn to something good, Lord, it is you who is drawing me. Open my heart and mind, open my very soul to the beauties of the Eucharist as not just a sign, but as the reality of your ongoing love and presence in my life.